ALBUQUERQUE – Steven Fryer, 39, of Atoka, N.M., pled guilty today in federal court in Las Cruces, N.M., to being a felon in possession of a firearm. Under the terms of his plea agreement, Fryer will be sentenced to 63 months in federal prison followed by a term of supervised release to be determined by the court.
Fryer was arrested on Feb. 17, 2016, on a criminal complaint charging him with being a felon in possession of a firearm. According to the complaint, Eddy County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Fryer on Oct. 29, 2014, after finding him in possession of a firearm following a short pursuit and standoff with the deputies. Fryer was prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition because of his prior convictions for burglary in an Arizona court.
During today’s proceedings, Fryer pled guilty to a felony information charging him with being a felon in possession of a firearm. In entering the guilty plea, Fryer admitted that on Oct. 29, 2014, in Eddy County, N.M., he was in possession of a shotgun. He further admitted that he was a convicted felon and was therefore prohibited from possessing firearms.
Fryer remains detained pending a sentencing hearing which has yet to be scheduled.
This case was investigated by the Las Cruces office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Eddy County Sheriff’s Office and the Pecos Valley Drug Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorney Maria Y. Armijo is prosecuting the case.
The Pecos Valley Drug Task Force is comprised of officers from the Eddy County Sheriff’s Office, Carlsbad Police Department and Artesia Police Department and is part of the HIDTA Region VI Drug Task Force. The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program was created by Congress with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988. HIDTA is a program of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) which provides assistance to federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies operating in areas determined to be critical drug-trafficking regions of the United States and seeks to reduce drug trafficking and production by facilitating coordinated law enforcement activities and information sharing.